Says festival is private event, government will take call when proposal is received
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday played ‘Mr Cool’ over the controversy surrounding the move to shift ‘Sunburn’ the electronic dance music (EDM) festival to South Goa this year saying it is a “private” festival and the organisers must have applied for permissions (there).
“It is a private festival. If they have said they will hold it in South Goa, they must have applied for permissions to hold it there. We will think about and take a call,” Sawant said in response to queries from journalists at a press conference he addressed on another matter.
Sawant also made light of the controversy related to the EDM and expressed surprise that there was so much reaction from several quarters over a private festival.
“We will decide. They (Sunburn organisers) always get their permissions late in the day,” Sawant said when asked if the government had not yet issued them the clearances, since the event is already being publicised and pre-sale tickets have gone onstream.
The organisers of Sunburn, who hosted seventeen editions of the festival they tout as Asia’s largest and the World’s 11th-ranked music festival in North Goa, had earlier last week announced that the venue this year will be in South Goa.
The Goan has reported that the organisers have set their sights on the Quitol plateau in Quepem where the Defence Expo was hosted in 2016 when the late Manohar Parrikar was the Union Defence Minister.
The move to shift the controversial festival to South Goa meanwhile triggered high-pitched opposition from politicians, social activists and NGOs almost instantly.
Not only did they announce that the festival will be held in South Goa from December 28 to 30, the organisers even went ahead with opening registrations for pre-sale tickets on BookMyShow. They have also scheduled to go onstream with public sale of tickets on the portal from July 24.
